Rodney Terry shares what stands out with this Texas team

Texas did not end the 2022-23 college basketball season the way it would have wanted, falling in the Elite Eight to a great Miami team. But the Longhorns also had a memorable year that will be remember for many reasons.

One of them, according to Rodney Terry, is the group’s ability to power through whatever curveballs were thrown the teams way this season.

“I think just the way this group handled adversity,” Terry said after the Longhorns’ 88-81 loss on Sunday. “They were probably the most challenged team of any team in the country this season, and they just stayed the course every single day.”

Texas finished the season with a 29-9 record, the best mark for the Longhorns since the 2007-08 team that also made the Elite Eight. It was also the program’s second Big 12 tournament title.

That 2007-08 Texas team was the last team in program history to make the second weekend of the tournament prior to this year’s squad.

They did all this despite the December suspension and later January firing of head coach Chris Beard.

“We stayed in the top ten all year long, and it’s a testament to these guys and their chemistry that they had all season long and playing for one another,” Terry said. “They were truly a team. It wasn’t about one guy trying to be a one-man show. Any given night we could have had a guy lead us in scoring. Guys played incredible defense for a better part of the whole year, and they just embodied everything about a team on and off the court.”

The Longhorns were a true group effort. Four different Texas players averaged double digits for this year’s team, led by 15.9 points per game by All-Big 12 first team guard Marcus Carr. Sir’Jabari Rice was the Big 12 Player of the Year, dropping 13.0 points off the bench.

And Terry, who was named interim head coach after Beard’s suspension, earned the full-time head coaching role on Monday.

“That’s the thing I’m most proud of: how they carried themselves,” Terry said. “They carried themselves with a lot of class off the court and a lot of class on the court. We didn’t have any issues this year off the court in terms of guys staying the course. And really having laser focus on trying to achieve a common goal as a team, and that was to try to win a National Championship.”